This is the system created made out of materials that we had in the greenhouse. It allowed the process of soil washing to go much faster given the large samples.

Some of the most important things that I have learned during this internship with Texas A&M have not taken place in a lecture room or in a conference area. The most practical of knowledge comes out in the field when performing simple mundane tasks. There is a variety of knowledge that comes when having to perform tasks such as spraying herbicide in a field, collecting soil samples, or setting up an irrigation system. While working on the different projects I was able to learn how to use things like a backpack sprayer and learn how to adjust pressure as well as to read label recommendations for chemical application rates. Depending on the size of the field the back pack sprayer may be enough to complete an application job. In larger commercial fields tractor sprayers are usually used. I learned the importance of always following safety procedures and following the label recommendations, as failing to do so could lead to safety hazards.

This is one of my co-workers about to use the back pack sprayer to treat a field of experimental corn.

Water conservation in the state of Texas is an important issue and area of concern. Water is the single most important element on our planet and is consumed widely in agricultural practices particularly in rice fields like the one that I work on with Tabby. There have been many projects that work with finding ways to reduce the amount of water that is used in Southern rice production, but yield output effects is the main concern. Other crops such as sorghum also make use of flood irrigation systems, which is how we watered Blake’s sorghum and johnsongrass field. One of the most simple ways to flood irrigate a field is through the use of poly pipe which is a plastic in the form of a long tube mimicking an irrigation pipe. This plastic is tied to the water head which will be the source of water, and can be tied with zip ties but must be tested to watch that the zip ties are strong enough to hold the plastic given a certain pressure. Although we used poly pipe in our research plots, larger operations tend to use either a linear or central pivot irrigation system. These irrigation systems require less human labor and can be programmed. Although water is becoming increasingly scarce, it is a necessary resource particularly in agriculture. Depending on the crop and the region, the water requirements will vary. In addition to this, realizing how much time it actually takes to set up an irrigation system and how much human labor it requires is also important. These tasks are not simple and require the time and effort of multiple people.

This is a Linear Irrigation System used in commercial agriculture.

Finally, one of the most valuable things that I have learned so far is the importance of being able to improvise. All too often, we plan things a certain way and once we get to doing them we figure out that our original plan did not work. When collecting soil samples from Blake’s sorghum field we found ourselves changing the method of sample collection that was originally planned. We had to make use of plastic buckets and large bags in order to be able to collect representative samples from each of the plots. Once we collected the samples from all 24 plots, we then proceeded to the next step which involved washing the soil and collecting the seed material from each sample to analyze the population of Johnsongrass seed in each given plot. Due to the large size of each sample, we had to devise a way to make the process of washing the soil as time effective as possible. Blake created a system out of materials that we had in the greenhouse to make the process much faster, and it worked! It took time to think about a way to make things work faster, but in the end the process was able to save a significant amount of time (picture below to show the device created).

The plastic irrigation pipe sometimes must be modified when used in an experimental trial. Here I am making holes in the pipe to only flood certain rows containing the Johnsongrass,

It was these simple and mundane days when I seemed to learn the most, just by watching and then trying things out for myself. I have realized that I can learn things ten times as well if I can do it using my hands, and for this reason I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to work with research programs like the weed science program at Texas A&M. My internship is almost over and there are only a couple of blogs left to wrap up my summer experience. During the next blog I will be sharing my experience with a genetics crossing block that was unlike anything I have ever worked on before!

Every Monday morning the whole team meets for debriefing, scheduling and presenting work. I really love the meetings for how collaborative they are; everyone shares what they want to accomplish for the week, we update each other on how our projects are going, discuss if any field work needs extra hands, and every week someone gives a presentation about their project. The meeting usually lasts about two hours, the first of which is for debriefing and scheduling and the second, for the presentation.

The purpose of the presentations is to give everyone an understanding of the history behind a project, its purpose, and methods. Quirine’s team consists of about twelve people (post docs, grad students, interns, extension associate, lab manager, and research specialists) and so far we have had nine project presentations. The discussions and questions are very interesting and often provide helpful feedback for the project. I learn a lot just from seeing how and where research, industry, extension and production intersect.

Today, a post doc presented about the whole farm nutrient management planning project and the New York phosphorus runoff index project- both of which were born within Quirine’s Nutrient Management SPEAR program may years ago. Whole farm nutrient management planning corresponds inputs (animals, crops produced, feed purchased, etc.) and outputs (products sold such as milk, animals, and crops) to nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium levels. The difference between the inputs and outputs may predict how efficient a farm’s nutrient use is and influence management strategies to prevent nutrient loss. The New York phosphorus runoff index project started about fifteen years ago when Quirine and a large number of collaborators created a scoring system for how susceptible a field is to phosphorus loss. The NRCS (under the USDA) mandated that fields needed to be assessed according to land grant university nutrient recommendations for phosphorus levels before fertilizer or manure application. The original scoring system did not account for different management practices which slow nutrient loss and so Cornell’s SPEAR program received funding to re-draft the scoring system.

The entire interaction; starting with the NRCS creating a mandate with the purpose of ‘minimizing non-point source pollution of surface and groundwater resources’ and ‘protecting air quality’ to Cornell’s Spear program creating the scoring system, then farmers and consultants using it and providing feedback about user experience with the scoring system- its huge groups of people responding to each other and working together. It’s a slow process which can feel grid-locked sometimes but its been an awesome experience being surrounded by it and seeing how it all comes together.

This is almost everyone on the team. We don’t have ice cream during team meetings, but we probably should…

Along with all of the corn and soybean trials that I have been scouting, maintaining, and documenting, we have several wheat trials in the mix. This past week we harvested our last wheat plot in the area- Pulaski, NY- and compared the varieties. I’ve never had much experience with wheat in general let alone harvesting it, so this was a new experience for me.

The excitement started out as soon as I arrived; they needed my truck battery to run the weigh wagon since it had suddenly been drained. After pulling my battery and getting the wagon running, we got out all of our equipment for measuring the test weight and moisture and a spreadsheet that calculated the tons per acre. Once we got all set up, the harvester went to work, carefully harvesting one row at a time and then dumping the load in the wagon to be tested and weighed before transferred to the truck. I had the opportunity to watch all of the testing take place for the first variety before jumping in and helping.

Fixing the wagon prior to harvest

Retrieving a sample to be tested

We had two different measuring instruments that gave us the moisture of the wheat of individual samples and then an average of three samples. In addition to moisture and test weight, we recorded the length of the wheat section that was planted and the weight the wagon displayed. On the pre-made spreadsheet, there was already a function that produced the tons per acre given the information we recorded and entered.

In this trial, we only had seven varieties of wheat, whereas most corn and bean plots have upwards of twenty. We had a range of tons per acre between 74 and 88, which for the field they were planted on was very impressive. The soil had been rock hard with little to no moisture for quite a long time and the wheat harvested around the plot had ranged from 26 to 120 tons per acre. We found that the lowest yielding variety was Cornell’s Erie wheat and the highest was Seedway’s 550.

Unfortunately this will be the only plot I will have had the opportunity to harvest, but it was definitely a unique and exciting experience.